Nominees revealed

Lee Mack, Mo Gilligan, Rosie Jones, Diane Morgan, Lucy Beaumont, Stephen Merchant and Joe Lycett are among the nominees for this year’s Bafta awards announced this morning.

Lycett was  nominated for after apparently shredding  £10,000 to highlight David Beckham’s hypocrisy in promoting the Qatari World Cup. The Channel 4 special he made about the stunt – Joe Lycett vs Beckham: Got Your Back At Xmas – is nominated in the ‘features’ category of British TV’s biggest awards.

Also shortlisted in the category is  The Misadventures Of Romesh Ranganathan – the BBC Two show in which the comedian travelled outside his comfort zone,  Big Zuu's Big Eats on Dave and ITV1’s The Martin Lewis Money Show Live.

The nominations also carry good news for comedies Am I Being Unreasonable? and Big Boys, with three nods apiece – and Adam Kay’s This Is Going To Hurt, which leads the field with six.

The darkly comic BBC One drama, starring Ben Whishaw, is tied with Martin Freeman's The Responder at the top of the table.

Daisy May Cooper's BBC One comedy-thriller and Jack Rooke’s Channel 4 coming-of-age story are up for best scripted comedy alongside perennial critics’ favourite Derry Girls and BBC One’s Ghosts.

Taskmaster is up for best comedy entertainment programme alongside Channel 4’s revival of Friday Night Live, and BBC One stalwarts The Graham Norton Show amd Would I Lie To You?

Up for best male performance in a comedy programme are:

• Daniel Radcliffe for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story on The Roku Channel
• Jon Pointing for Big Boys on Channel 4
• Joseph Gilgun for Brassic on Sky Max
• Lenny Rush for Am I Being Unreasonable? on BBC One
• Matt Berry, What We Do In The Shadows for Disney+
• Stephen Merchant, The Outlaws for BBC One

For best female performance:

• Daisy May Cooper for Am I Being Unreasonable? on BBC One
• Diane Morgan for Cunk On Earth on BBC Two
• Lucy Beaumont for Meet The Richardsons on Dave
• Natasia Demetriou for Ellie & Natasia on BBC Three
• Siobhán Mcsweeney for  Derry Girls on Channel 4
• Taj Atwal, Hullraisers for n Channel 4

For best entertainment performance:

• Big Zuu for Big Zuu's Big Eats - Dave
• Claudia Winkleman for The Traitors - BBC One
• Lee Mack for The 1% Club - ITV1
• Mo Gilligan for The Lateish Show With Mo Gilligan - Channel 4
• Rosie Jones for Rosie Jones' Trip Hazard - Channel 4
• Sue Perkins for Sue Perkins: Perfectly Legal - Netflix

For best comedy writer

• Jack Rooke for Big Boys - Channel 4
• Lisa McGee for Derry Girls - Channel 4
• Nancy Harris for The Dry -  Britbox
• Sharon Horgan, Barunka O’Shaughnessy, Helen Serafinowicz and Holly Walsh for  Motherland - BBC One

This Is Going To Hurt is up for best mini-series with Whishaw up for best actor for playing the lead role based on Kay – who is up for best drama writer. Perhaps surprisingly, Ambika Mod was not nominated for her breakout role as student doctor Shruti Acharya.

The winners in the main categories will be announced at a ceremony on 14 May, hosted by Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan, with the Bafta craft awards handed out on April 23.

Published: 22 Mar 2023